1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device and a battery pack provided therein. More specifically, the present invention relates to a technology that optimizes operation control by acquiring power information of a battery pack.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices include a type of device in which a main unit including various circuits, such as a driving circuit and a control circuit, is equipped with a battery pack and the main unit is driven by electric power supplied from the battery pack. The type of device is, for example, an information processing device such as a personal computer.
This type of electronic device of the related art includes a device (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-259191) which detects the type and voltage of an installed battery pack and an ambient temperature around the battery pack, and which controls the device operation in response to the detected battery pack type and voltage, and ambient temperature.
Due to the sophistication, etc., of electronic devices in recent years, the maximum power consumption tends to increase in some types of electronic devices. In some cases, there is a possibility that power consumption may exceed the power that can be supplied of a battery pack. Such an excess power consumption over the power that can be supplied of the battery pack may cause the power to unintentionally and suddenly turn off. The power-off may cause a problem of data loss in, for example, an information processing device such as a personal computer.
Accordingly, in order to prevent the above problem from occurring, in the information processing device of the related art, such as a personal computer, a control circuit provided in a main unit, such as a power saving circuit, measures power supplied from a battery pack to the main unit at the time the power consumption exceeds a power threshold set beforehand, and controls the power of a central processing unit (CPU).
In the case of preventing the unintentional sudden power-off by using the power saving circuit or the like, a problem occurs in that the production cost is increased by the need for the power saving circuit or the like.
When power information of the main unit or the battery pack is changed, a parameter of the power saving circuit must be examined and reset each time.
In addition, it is possible to increase the number of cells in the battery pack in order to cope with a rise in power consumption of the electronic device. However, an increased number of cells enlarges the battery pack, thus increasing the battery pack weight. This also causes a problem of requiring major design changes of the battery installation part in which the battery pack is installed.